Discussion Zone

Here's my take on Leaf's Wicked.
Let me know how it sounds to your ears.

Happy listening,
Erick

Nice sounding mix Erick, great balance and the drums sound great.
Real good work.

(06-05-2014, 08:36 AM)takka360 Wrote: [ -> ]Nice sounding mix Erick, great balance and the drums sound great.
Real good work.

Thanks Alan !
Your (first) mix of this song served me as a guide for the punchiness of the rythm section.

Hey, nice! Love the nice stereo spread you got on the backing vocals! How'd you do that? It almost sounds like each of the mono elements is double-tracked, one track on the left and one on the right. I also love what you did with that otherwise annoying synth sound at 2:21. I just applied guitar distortion to it and made it sound like another guitar but bouncing it back and forth across the stereo image was just as effective a treatment. That sounded cool!

My only quibbles here is I'd like to hear the kick drum a little thicker, maybe a little boost at 80 Hz, and the snare's a little snappy on the ears. I suggest bringing down the top mic down and leaving the bottom mic level where it is; I found, while working with these tracks, that the snare sounds better when the bottom mic is emphasized more.

To my ears that snare is spot on,and to much bottom on a kick can start to lose the clarity in the bottom end,maybe cut some top,lp etc.

(07-05-2014, 02:47 AM)Pedaling Prince Wrote: [ -> ]Hey, nice! Love the nice stereo spread you got on the backing vocals! How'd you do that? It almost sounds like each of the mono elements is double-tracked, one track on the left and one on the right.

Hey John, thanks for the nice words and feedback.
Indeed, both BV tracks have been kind of double-tracked. I switched each mono track to stereo and added on each an instance of P&M Dimension 3D plugin (which is a kind of stereo chorus without the LFO modulation), which in essence acts the same as duplicating the mono track, panning tracks L and R, delaying and detuning one of them, but in a more convenient way.

(07-05-2014, 02:47 AM)Pedaling Prince Wrote: [ -> ]I also love what you did with that otherwise annoying synth sound at 2:21. I just applied guitar distortion to it and made it sound like another guitar but bouncing it back and forth across the stereo image was just as effective a treatment. That sounded cool!

That particular synth sound was not the most annoying to me. The one I really didn't know how to deal with was the growling sound at 1:27, and that's where I first applied the stereo panning tremolo effect. But then, while listening to the one you mentioned, I thought it was a good candidate for that same effect.

(07-05-2014, 02:47 AM)Pedaling Prince Wrote: [ -> ]My only quibbles here is I'd like to hear the kick drum a little thicker, maybe a little boost at 80 Hz, and the snare's a little snappy on the ears. I suggest bringing down the top mic down and leaving the bottom mic level where it is; I found, while working with these tracks, that the snare sounds better when the bottom mic is emphasized more.

Well, I'm a sucker for tight and punchy rythm section, so my processing was as follow :
- lower or eliminate all sources of resonances of the kick (in OH, room and snare rattles)
- EQ kick and bass so that they find their own space and avoid too much boominess
- parallel compress both kick and snare (top)
(I tried to send the bottom snare to the parallel comp bus, but it just created a long trail of resonances, so I left it alone)

As you suggested, I tried to boost the kick around 80Hz, but since it's where I alloted space for the bass, my subwoofer started to rumble dangerously But in the next version of my mix I will try EQing out some of the beater frequencies which may make the kick sound thinner than it is.

As for the snare, I tend to like them sounding warm without too much of the rattles' high frequencies, but I will try your suggestion by adding back some of the bottom mic while maybe EQing out the annoying kick resonance from it.

Thanks again for the constructive feedback. Will post a new version soon.
Erick

Get rid of the kick, its the main problem find a good sample.

(07-05-2014, 06:20 PM)takka360 Wrote: [ -> ]Get rid of the kick, its the main problem find a good sample.

It's already a sample. I replaced the kick when I first listened to it and noticed that the stem had guitars mixed in at the end of the track.

Oh lol sorry

No problem